Daniel Hudson baffled by pitching funk

By Carter Nacke | April 22, 2011 at 3:40 amUPDATED: April 22, 2011 at 4:43 am

Daniel Hudson is having a rough season so far and even he is baffled by how it’s started.

“It’s just some kind of funk I’m in right now,” he said after Thursday’s 4-7 loss. “I need to push through and hopefully get through it and go on to the next one.”

Talk about a bad funk. Hudson is 0-4 in his first four starts and has a dreadful 5.92 ERA. He seems to be going through hot and cold periods not over a month, but in a game.

For example, Hudson threw 37 pitches while facing the entire Reds order in the first inning of Thursday’s game in Cincinnati. Despite the D-backs going up one thanks to some solid hitting, Hudson had them in the hole by a score of 4-1 by the time the side was retired.

After that, he looked like the pitcher he was last season, allowing two runs on two hits and sending the Reds 1-2-3 back to the dugout in three straight innings.

Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson said in a postgame interview he can tell Hudson is trying too hard and knew the young pitcher was struggling in the first inning.

“He walked a couple of guys in the first inning, hit a guy and gave up a groundball hit and he got pretty frustrated there,” Gibson said.

The ace arrived in a trade with the Chicago White Sox last season and put up some excellent numbers after his arrival with a 7-1 record and a 1.69 ERA.